University of Kent, School of Anthropology & Conservation

MA in Social Anthropology & Computing

Our School is highly inter-disciplinary and our postgraduate students can benefit from a wide variety of expertise not only in the traditional fields of social anthropology but also in areas such as environmental anthropology, ethnobotany, conservation biology, biodiversity management, environmental law and, in particular, computing applications for anthropology. The School also houses the Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing (CSAC) under its Director, Dr. Michael Fischer. Thanks to the Centre the School is one of the world's leading institutions in the field of the application of computing techniques to anthropology.

The aim of the MA in Social Anthropology with Computing is to prepare you to apply appropriate computer-based methods to anthropological research at a relatively advanced and creative level. You will develop a research perspective in social anthropology - the design, planning, implementation and analysis of anthropological research - and apply specialised computing methods to anthropological research and analysis.

The following Master's programmes are recognised by the ESRC as having research training status, so successful completion of these courses is sufficient preparation for research in the various fields of social anthropology. Many of our students do, in fact, go on to do MPhil and PhD research. Others use their Master's qualification in employment ranging from research in government departments to teaching to consultancy work overseas.

Postgraduate Diploma students may study the same course content as MA and MSc students on the respective programmes, but diploma programmes run for nine months full-time and are assessed by essays and course participation alone. Diploma students who successfully complete the coursework may, on application, be accepted onto the research and dissertation module which leads to the award of MA or MSc.

Course Structure

Two modules (40 credits) drawn from Social Anthropology, usually Research Methods and one other module relating to your interests. Students with a strong computing background can exchange one module between computing and social anthropology, and/or take more advanced modules in computing than those ordinarily offered.

Computing application and short dissertation

(Please note that students with no background in Java programming must take a special three-week module before the beginning of the academic year in September.)